The Bridge: Todd Shapera

By Jeff Kent

From Westchester to Sri Lanka, Todd Shapera is driven by a passion to capture the inner beauty and resilience of individuals just about everywhere on earth. He's linking disparate worlds through photography.

Todd Shapera has always been a storyteller in one form or another. Among other pursuits, he’s written for National Public Radio, worked on speeches for politicians and UNICEF, and penned articles for numerous financial publications.

Though photography had interested him for a long time, it didn’t present a viable career option until the mid-1990s. While working in public relations for a global investment firm, Shapera frequently traveled the world to attend financial seminars. He made contacts with various journalists and people working with different financial publications. Carrying his camera on his trips, he started documenting the people and places he visited.

One day, after taking a heli-skiing trip to British Columbia, Shapera called the Financial Times to see if they’d be interested in a photo essay on his adventure. They loved his photos and loved the story he wrote to accompany them. That first foray into photojournalism led to several travel-related stories. Shapera continued to work in the corporate world while picking up the occasional magazine assignment and honing his photographic skills.